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In the heart of Kielder Village, Northumberland, hemmed in by Sitka spruce, the people are waiting for news of their proposed new neighbours. It’s late July, the summer tourist season, but, save for a few mountain bikers, there’s an eerie quietness.

The sparsely populated Kielder Forest Park, the largest forest in England and just south of the Scottish border, is well off the beaten tourist track. And this is exactly why it has been chosen as the potential spot for reintroducing lynx to the UK. Unlike the Sitka trees planted here in the Thirties to create the forest, the lynx is a native species that died out in the British Isles 1,300 years ago. A throwback to when the British Isles was covered in native forest, they roamed from John O’Groats to Land’s End until, prized for their beautiful pelts, they were hunted to extinction.

The lynx has the power to ­inspire people who aren’t normally ­interested in conservation. They’ve also got ­charisma.

Many locals are pinning the area’s future fortunes on the return of these majestic cats. Michael Brown, who runs the Anglers Arms and has a life-size cardboard cut-out of a Lynx behind his bar, talks about the potential “Loch Ness monster effect”.

“I like the animals, full stop,” says Michael. “But they will also bring tourists into the village. After the school holidays it’s bleak here. Just a handful of people come out of season, mostly for the observatory.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Jackie ­Bilton, owner of Clear Sky Lodge Park, and by her 11-year-old son, Fletcher. “We could really do with the boost,” she says.

Jackie Bilton and her son welcome the potential tourism boostCredit:
Stuart Nicol

While conservationists have talked for years of reintroduction, it has taken Lynx UK Trust just three years to reach the point where, in as little as two months, lynx may be padding through UK forests once more. The project has been spearheaded by Dr Paul O’Donoghue, chief scientific adviser to the Lynx UK Trust. After 20 years in conservation, working with rhinos and pygmy hippos in Africa, among other endangered species, he says he was sick of people talking about restoring the lynx and “not having the guts to do it”. He and his team selected Kielder over four other potential release sites. He is excited as much about the ­economic regeneration of Kielder, as its ecological restoration.

Driving through central Kielder, he points towards the crumbling and closed youth hostel. “That sums up Kielder. It’s July – where is everybody? It’s screaming out for rural regeneration.” He believes the lynx, a graceful 65lb cat, the size of a “skinny labrador” has the charisma to draw people to the area. “The lynx has the power to ­inspire people who aren’t normally ­interested in conservation. They’ve also got ­charisma. People don’t talk about ­water voles but they talk about lynx in the shop and down the pub. They are the perfect predator in that they ­present zero risk to people and minimal risk to livestock.”

Two weeks ago, the Lynx UK Trust submitted an application to Natural England for permission to carry out a trial. If all goes to plan, six Eurasian lynx (four females and two males) will be captured from the wilds of Sweden and brought to Kielder Forest on a five-year trial period, monitored by satellite collars. Paul’s vision is of creating an eminently marketable, “Kingdom of the Lynx” with a whole ecotourist industry alongside it. “This will be the number-one wildlife site in the UK by a mile. It blows sea eagles out of the ­water, and I love sea eagles. This is like sea eagles on steroids,” he says, with bombastic enthusiasm.

If it all sounds a little wildlife theme-park, then experience has taught Paul that wildlife conservation has to pay its way. “It pains me to say it, but animals need to be valued to be protected,” he says. “It’s not my motivation, but I ­understand that the way to conserve things is to make them valued by the community they live in.”

Not everybody is as convinced by the lynx’s proposed value to Kielder though. The forest is also home to around 50 per cent of England’s red squirrel population, and is their last ­remaining stronghold in the country. Some worry that the lynx will predate this already depleted native.

“A red squirrel would be sitting on a branch laughing at a lynx,” says Paul, dismissing any possible threat the cats may pose. In fact, roe deer form 95 per cent of the lynx diet. And there is no shortage of them in Kielder.

Dr Paul O'Donoghue, who helped choose Kielder as the release site for the lynx reintroduction programmeCredit:
Stuart Nicol

Lynx are solitary ambush predators that come out at dawn and dusk but, Paul says: “People need to realise these are not wolves, lions or tigers. They’re a medium-sized cat. They are masters of evasion, and very secretive. They do not want to come across a person. When I go to Romania and say people are concerned about lynx here, they laugh. They have 9,000 grizzly bears in their country, and nobody is bothered about that.” He has worked closely with the community to inform them about the lynx’s nature. “I’ve knocked on every door in the village and given them leaflets. Not everyone was enthusiastic but people have been coming round,” he says.

The local sheep farmers have been harder to convince. But based on ­European figures, where the kill rate is 0.4 sheep per lynx per year, Paul and his team predict that 2.4 sheep will be lost each year. “We also predicted tens of millions in tourism,” he says stoutly.

Eurasian lynxCredit:
Bruno Mathieu

It’s certainly an exciting prospect and a new chapter in the story of Kielder, which was created after the First World War when only 5 per cent of Britain was covered in woodland. And Paul is quietly confident that he will get the go-ahead – citing article 22 of the European Habitats Directive. ­Already he is planning a reconnaissance trip to Sweden to scope out ­potential lynx. If the release is a ­success, he sees no reason more shouldn’t be planned. Thetford Forest, Grizedale Forest, Aberdeenshire and the West Coast of Scotland were on the Trust’s scoping list. Estimates say the Southern Uplands, of which Kielder is part, could support up to 100 lynx. “And there’s more deer now than when that study was done,” says Paul. “The UK as a whole could have 400 lynx.”

Ultimately, Paul sees the lynx as ­ambassadors of British conservation, which he says lags woefully behind ­Europe: “This is old news in Europe. In the UK, we live in a very degraded and damaged country – we’re one of the least biodiverse countries in the planet. We live in sterile, tame environments where we’re scared of urban foxes. Quite frankly, it’s ridiculous and it’s time we had a kick up the a---.”